Rotary display device.



F. M. THORPE.

ROTARY DISPLAY DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 13. 1916.

1,260,477 Patented Mar. 26,1918.

ATTORNEY.

FRANK M. arr-roars, or LAMAR, MISSOURI.

ROTARY DISPLAY DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 26, 191%.

Application fil ed November 13, 1916. Serial No. 131,339.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK M. Tnonrn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lamar, in the county of Barton and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Display Dctractive appearance.

A further object is to produce a rotatable display which is of knock-down construction and which embodies a stiff skeleton wheel member capable of collapse to small 'size for storage.

With these and other objects in view as hereinafter appear, the invention consists in certain novel and peculiar features of construction and combinations of parts as hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims, and in order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1, is a side elevation of a rotary display device embodying my invention.

Fig. 2, is an edge view of the same.

Fig. 3, is an enlarged perspective view of part of the device.

Fig. 4, is an enlarged section on the line IV IV f Fig. 1, of one side of the wheel member.

Fig. 5, is a diagrammatic view illustrative of the wheel in its collapsed condition.

In the said drawing, 1 indicates a pair of cross pieces connected by parallel foot standards 2, provided in their outer sides with vertical grooves 3 into which are secured by screws 4 a pair of parallelposts 5 provided in their upper ends with bearing notches or bifurcations 6.

7 is a headed bolt fitted through one of the foot standards 2 nd retained in position by nut 8, and journaled on said boltis a double pulley, comprising members 9. and 10, the former being a relatively large pulley and engaged by a belt 11 leading from an electric fan pulley or the like, not shown, as but little power i required to operate the device.

The wheel member of the device is constructed. as follows: 12 is a shaft having reduced ends 13 journalcd in the bifurcations of posts, and having hub disks 14, preferably of wood. "Wire frames connect the hub disks, and consist of parallel arms or spokes 15, terminating at their inner ends in hooks l6, pivotally secured through the hub disks, and cross or bridge pieces 17, connecting the other ends of the arms, the frames being formed with circular eye or loops 18, at the junction of the arms or spokes and cross or bridge pieces. There are eight of such frames but may be more or less than that number, and they are connected together by pairs of link 19. The links consist of doubled pieces of wire of equal length tern'iinating in hooks 20 and said links are pivotally connected together at their looped ends and their hook ends pivotally engage the eyes or loops 18, as shown clearly by Fig. 3, it being noted that four hooks engage each eye or loop.

All of the links except one pair are permanently looped together, and said pair are hooked together, this being accomplished preferably by bending the looped end of one to form a hook 21 to detachably engage the looped end of the adjacent link, as shown clearly in Fig. 1. Before the bent link can be hooked to the adjacent link, the U-shaped frames must occupy the position shown by Fig. 1, that is, said frames must be swung apart until the connecting links are alined. When this is accomplished, a light pressure is applied on the two frames respectively carrying the bent link and the link to be engaged thereby, to bring said frames close enough to permit the bent link to be hooked to the other link, the! reaction in the wheel guarding against accidental disengagement between said links. The wheel thus produced is therefore perfectly rigid. In this connection it will be seen that when the bent link is unhookcd from the other link, their respective frames can be swung pivotally apart or toward the adjacent frames by collapsing inward the links connecting them with said adjacent frames, and that when this action is repeated with the remaining frames and links, all of the frames project in the sam general direction, as indicated by the diagrammatic view. Fig. 5, it being understood that this arrangement or nesting is possible because the arms or spokes 15, shown as crossing over arms of the other frames, are sprung outunderstood that the wheel can be collapsed while mounted on the post or after being removed therefrom, though it is more convenient to both collapse and open the wheel before dismounted from the posts.

For the display of articles by the wheel,

supports are suspended from the cross orv bridge pieces of the U-shaped frame. In the drawing the supports shown are shelves or trays 22 provided at each end with upwardly projecting arms 23, each arm being produced by doubling a piece of wire, bending the doubled end to produce a hook 24 for engagement with a cross or bridge piece 17 and bending the ends of the arms to produce transverse alined pivots 25, fitting against the shelf and pivotally secured thereto by staples 26. Ofcourse the sup ports may be of any form or type capable of pivotal suspension from the cross or bridge pieces, the supports being preferably of form best adapted to support the articles to be displayed. To centralize the supports and. prevent them working toward either side of the wheel, spacing sleeves 27shown as wire coils-are fitted on the cross or bridge pieces.

The wheel can be rotated slowly by running the belt 11 from a fan pulley or the like, (not shown), and power is transmitted from the small pulley 10 to the wheel by means of a belt 28 extending from the said pulley around the wheel, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

,VVhen the device is not in use, it can be knocked down to small size by removing the article-supports, collapsing the wheel, and detaching the posts from the standards 2. The suspension supports can be collapsed by swinging their arms 23 until they underlie the respective shelves, in a manner apparent by reference to the arrows adjacent the lowest shelf, Fig. 2. The collapsed suspension supports can then be placed upon the crosspieces 1, and the collapsed wheel, together with the posts 5, and belts 11 and 28, be laid upon the said shelves. The parts as thus arranged, occupy but little space.

From the above description it will be apparent that I have produced a rotatable dis play device possessing the features of advantage enumerated as desirable in the statement of the object of the invention and I wish it to be understood that Ireserve the Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the comini ssioner of Patents. Washington, D. 0.

right to make all changes falling withinthe spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim: a

1. A rotary display device, comprising a suitably journaled wheel, consisting of a shaft, disk hubs, U-shaped frames pivoted at I their ends to and extending radially of the disk hubs, pairs of links pivotally connected together and to the outer portions of adjacent U-shaped frames, the links connecting one pair. of adjacent frames being detachably connected together, supports pivotally suspended from said frames between the side portions thereof, a driven pulley and a belt connecting said pulley and wheel together.

2. A rotary display device, comprising a suitably journaled wheel, consisting of a shaft, disk hubs, lJ-shaped frames pivoted at their ends to and extending radially of the A disk hubs, pairs of links pivotally connected together andto the outer portions of adjacent U-shaped frames, the links connecting one pair of adjacent frames being detachably connected together, supports. pivotally large pulley to rotate the same and therefore said wheel member. c

3. A rotary display device, comprising cross bars, foot standards connecting corresponding ends of the cross bars, vertical posts detachably secured to the foot stand- H ards and provided with notches in their upper ends, a double pulley journaled on oneof the foot standards at theinner side of -the adjacent post, a wheel ,journaled in the bifurcated upper end of said posts, supports pivotally suspended from said wheel, a belt engaging one member of the double, pulley, and a belt connecting the other member of the double pulley with the wheel; said wheel comprising a shaft, disk hubs on the shaft,

U-shaped frames pivotally hooked at the inner ends of their arms to said disk hubs and pairs of links pivotally connecting the outer ends of the armsof the U-shaped frames together, the links connecting one pair of adjacent U-shaped frames being detachably hooked together.

In testimony whereof I in presence oftwo witnesses.

v FRANK M. THORPE.

Witnesses:

D. J. DOWNEY, G. YYTHQRIE.

affix my signaturef A 

